Church in the O2

On Sunday the 13th it was Hillsong London's 10th anniversary so church was held the the O2 arena, they had to turn around three thousand people away. I have put a link in the videos from there on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrpHzVo66gk&feature=related The sound is not very good sorry but good pictures of everyone. This one is the one the church made about where Hillsong has been in the last 10 years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxpTmMxoHj8&feature=related There are lots more on Youtube if anybody wants a look. If Hillsong bring out an official one I will put the link in.

Kew Gardens Sunday 6th September

Today we decided to go out and see Kew Gardens before the weather gets too cold (the temperature has droped here this week). It ended up nice and sunny so even though it was a bit colder we had a really nice day. The glasshouses where amazing - you climbed up stairs and walked along a pathway at he top of the trees. We also we went on the 'tree top' walk - this is a walkway in the tree tops - check it out in the picutres!

Scotland Saturday 29th August – Monday 31st August

Highland Cattle Glasgow Karaoke One Saturday Josh and I flew to Glasgow and met up with Marama and Shane at 10am. Shane and Marz drove up, but Shane put us on his car insurance so we could all do a bit of driving as we where covering a large section of the Highlands this weekend. We started the day off by looking around Glasgow, it was quite a bit colder than London and quite windy. We had a look around and enjoyed afternoon tea in Willow Tea Rooms – Tea Rooms created by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1904. Everything from the chairs to the cutlery was his design. We where staying in Callender so I drove us out of the city. Callender is a little town in the Trossachs ( where the lowlands meet the highlands). The Trossachs have inspired many writers including Sir Walter Scott who made the area the setting for several of his novels. It was also the home of Sclotland’s folk hero Rob Roy. We where staying in a little B & B – really nice. We where all feeling quite tired so for fear of going to sleep in we sat down we headed out into the town at about 6.30pm. I was really hungry so we had dinner at about 7pm in a local pub – who as luck would have it started Karioke at 9pm which resulted in Josh and Shane singing away ‘I want to break free’ by Queen (not a very good rendition if you ask me and Marz). I picked there next song ‘500 Miles’ by the Proclaimers and they did a much better job. We got left just after mid night with the boys having possible a few whiskeys too many!

Scotland Day 2

Callander

Trossachs Loch Katrine

Sir Walter Scott Memorial in Stirling

Stirling Castle

Stirling Trossachs Scottish Singers in Aviemore No time to sleep in – we had a lovely breakfast included and left at 10am. Took a walk around Callander – check out the little foot bridge and stream – very pretty. Josh took a turn driving and we went through the Trossachs to Loch Katrine, where we had an ice cream and talk a walk around the Loch – very pretty. After the lock we drove to Stirling, again another picturesque Scottish village. We took pictures of the castle – although didn’t go in and found some more nice team rooms for lunch. Stirling was once one of Scotland’s most important fortresses. After Stirling I took the wheel and drove us to into the highlands. We took a stop at Pitlochry before arriving at Granton-on-Spey where we where staying, again we where staying at a lovely B&B. This time we drove into Aviemore for dinner and ate a pub that had a couple of Scottish singers doing all the classics. After they finished at about 10pm we headed back.

Scotland Day 3

Views of the Highlands as we drove along:

On the way up to see the parallel lines

Parallel Lines

Fort William

Loch Ness

We found Nessey!

Inverness

The train home.

Check out the cabin!

We started earlier today and left at 9am. We headed for the Reindeer Centre but it was closed so Josh drove us through the highlands to Ben Nevis. We stopped on the way at numerous points to take pictures – so beautiful. One of the most interesting things we saw was a view of the ‘parallel lines’ these are lines that can been seen in the hills from where the water level used to be in the ice age (check out the pictures – pretty amazing). We headed down to Ben Nevis and took a ride up in the Gondola. Something very unique and interesting about the highlands is the mist or fog it comes up all of a sudden and just sits there – quite close to the ground – check it out in the photos. It makes the landscape quite eerie. After Ben Nevis we continued along to Fort William (unfortunately the distillery was closed) but we did take a walk around town and have some lunch. After Fort William I took over the driving again to take us back up to Inverness. On the way we stopped at Loch Ness and we found the Nessy – check it out! We finally arrived in Inverness at 5.30pm. Marz and Shane departed then and headed off to their next destination (they have 4 more hours of driving to do). Josh and I had a walk around Inverness stopped into the Coop to get dinner and took ourselves on the sleeper train back to London. The train left at 8.30pm and arrived at 7.45am – just in time to go home, have a quick shower and go on to work. We sat up in the Bar Carriage and ate our snacks until about 10pm and then where so tired we went to bed and slept through to 7am!